For the 2025 Fellowship, we are accepting applications only from residents of Albania 🇦🇱, Andorra 🇦🇩, Åland Islands 🇦🇽, Austria 🇦🇹, Belgium 🇧🇪, Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦, Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Chile 🇨🇱, Costa Rica 🇨🇷, Croatia 🇭🇷, Cyprus 🇨🇾, Czechia 🇨🇿, Denmark 🇩🇰, Estonia 🇪🇪, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴, Finland 🇫🇮, France 🇫🇷, Germany 🇩🇪, Gibraltar 🇬🇮, Greece 🇬🇷, Guernsey 🇬🇬, Hong Kong 🇭🇰, Hungary 🇭🇺, Iceland 🇮🇸, India 🇮🇳, Indonesia 🇮🇩, Ireland 🇮🇪, Italy 🇮🇹, Japan 🇯🇵, Jersey 🇯🇪, Kenya 🇰🇪, Kosovo 🇽🇰, Latvia 🇱🇻, Liechtenstein 🇱🇮, Lithuania 🇱🇹, Luxembourg 🇱🇺, Malta 🇲🇹, Malaysia 🇲🇾, Mexico 🇲🇽, Monaco 🇲🇨, Montenegro 🇲🇪, North Macedonia 🇲🇰, Netherlands 🇳🇱, Norway 🇳🇴, Panama 🇵🇦, Poland 🇵🇱, Portugal 🇵🇹, Romania 🇷🇴, Rwanda 🇷🇼, San Marino 🇸🇲, Serbia 🇷🇸, Singapore 🇸🇬, Slovakia 🇸🇰, Slovenia 🇸🇮, South Africa 🇿🇦, South Korea 🇰🇷, Spain 🇪🇸, Svalbard and Jan Mayen 🇸🇯, Sweden 🇸🇪, Switzerland 🇨🇭, Tanzania 🇹🇿, Thailand 🇹🇭, Turkey 🇹🇷, Uganda 🇺🇬, United Kingdom 🇬🇧, United States 🇺🇸, and Zimbabwe 🇿🇼. Applicants must currently live in one of these countries and plan to stay in one of them when implementing during the creation of their project. Fellows may move between eligible countries, but cannot relocate to a country that is not on this list.

To be considered for the Fellowship, we invite you to apply with an idea to solve an environmental challenge you’re passionate about. We are particularly interested in seeing your deep understanding of the challenge itself. Show us why this problem matters to you and the world, and how committed you are to making a difference. You can also apply if you are already actively working on a project, but please note that we do not accept projects past prototyping stage.

beVisioneers has defined the following key areas of intervention for planet-positive projects:

1. Circularity (Responsible Consumption & Production): This involves designing products, materials, and systems to minimize waste, promote resource efficiency, and encourage practices of reuse, recycling, and responsible consumption and production.
2. Decarbonization: This entails reducing or eliminating CO2 emissions to mitigate climate change and transition to a low-carbon economy.
3. Education & Behavioral Change: This focuses on raising awareness and promoting changes in individual and collective behavior through educational programs, campaigns, and initiatives aimed at fostering sustainable and environmentally responsible actions.
4. Governance, Incentives & Capacity Building: This involves improving governance structures, creating incentives, and building the capacity of organizations and communities to implement and sustain planet-positive practices and policies.
5. Indigenous Knowledge, Research, & Data Exchange: This recognizes and values the knowledge and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in environmental stewardship. Additionally, it promotes research and data exchange that not only incorporates indigenous perspectives and practices but also promotes mutually enriching, equitable, and respectful innovation.
6. Sustainable Food Systems (Sustainable Food Systems, Food Security, and Healthy Nutrition): This is focused on creating food systems, including production, processing, transport, and consumption, that is environmentally sustainable, provide food security in terms of access and quantity of affordable nutritious food, and promote healthy nutrition.
7. Ecosystems & Global Environmental Commons: This involves the management and preservation of natural resources that provide shared benefits and are of universal importance for all life on Earth, yet exist beyond specific jurisdictions, such as the atmosphere, oceans, and biodiversity.
8. Regenerative Tourism: This promotes tourism that positively contributes to the well-being of local communities and the environment, emphasizing sustainable and regenerative practices over mass tourism.
9. Affordable & Clean Energy: This aims to make clean and renewable energy sources, such as hydrokinetic, solar, and wind power, accessible and affordable to a wide range of individuals and communities, reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
10. Water Management: This focuses on the responsible stewardship of water resources, including conservation, pollution prevention, equitable access, and sustainable use of freshwater.
11. Sustainable Transport & Mobility: This involves developing and promoting transportation systems that are energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and support sustainable mobility options such as public transit and alternative fuel transportation.
12. Waste Management: This encompasses efficient and environmentally responsible management of waste materials, including waste reduction, recycling, and proper disposal.

A project in the “idea stage” primarily focuses on creating, refining, and evaluating a proposed idea or concept intended to address a specific and defined environmental challenge. During this initial phase, the project has not yet solidified its plan, specific goals, or allocated resources. In the idea stage, a project encompasses the following elements:

1. One or more conceptual project solutions or initiatives aimed at addressing a particular need, problem, or opportunity.
2. Assessment of the project’s relevance (potential and practicality) involves providing insights into how the offering addresses the problems, desires, or challenges of the intended audience and partners, thus making it suitable and appealing to potential users. This can also be accomplished by exploring comparable solutions or pioneering initiatives in the field (state of the art) to gauge the potential success of your project.
3. Identification of potential key stakeholders/partners who may have an interest in or be affected by the idea, including the community, users, or organizations that can support project implementation.
4. Development of a basic outline or vision for how the project could potentially be executed, including overarching goals and potential key milestones.
5. Identification of potential risks and challenges associated with the idea, accompanied by the formulation of broad strategies to manage or mitigate these risks.

We do not accept projects passed the prototype phase.

In case you are already working on a project or idea and do this together with team members, please note that Fellows are selected on an individual basis. For this reason, every member of a project team who wishes to participate must apply individually, and the acceptance of one team member does not guarantee the acceptance of others. The fellowship experience is designed to help you grow personally as a leader, and significant emphasis is placed on individual development and reflection. We therefore recommend that project founders or leaders apply.

beVisioneers is a multi-year fellowship which starts with a 12-month foundation year. This first year focuses on bringing ideas to the prototype phase and consists of blend of weekly on-demand and live classes where fellows build knowledge and learn by DOing around 3 labs:

• Personal Sustainability Lab
• Project Sustainability Lab
• Environmental Sustainability Lab

Key elements of the program include:

• Weekly online live sessions
• On-demand content (e.g. a content library micro-videos, downloadable toolkits & templates)
• Mentoring
• Masterclasses & co-working missions
• Peer coaching
• Access to experts in relevant fields
• Access to earned project scholarships and needs-based access to a financial stipend
• In-person gatherings: annual Regional Summits, quarterly local hub meetups and an opportunity to attend a global summit on an international level.

There are no costs to individual fellows. Participation in the program is fully funded by  donations from Mercedes-Benz. Free of charge, all Fellows benefit from the beVisioneers learning program and access to the beVisioneers community. All expenses associated with travel to summits are also fully covered.

Towards the end of the Foundational Year of the Fellowship, Fellows can gain access to Project Scholarships through an application, rigorous review and selection process. Project Scholarships range from $2,000 to $20,000 and enable Fellows to continue their learning in an applied learning phase advancing their project.

beVisioneers is committed to ensuring an accessible and financially inclusive fellowship experience. Active engagement in the fellowship program requires reliable and consistent access to a computer and the internet, as well as sufficient time for learning and project development. For this reason, beVisioneers offers financial support to help fellows with specific needs overcome logistical and/or financial barriers that may prevent their full participation. Financial support is available only for the initial, 12-month intensive learning program, and every candidate invited for a Fellowship interview is welcome to apply for this financial support on a needs assessment basis. There are two types on financial stipends available:

Costs of Living Stipend:

The Living Cost Stipend offers monthly financial aid to help fellows partially cover essential expenses. It is adjusted for local cost levels of each country. The stipend is available during the first year of the program to those who are economically disadvantaged or will face financial hardship due to their participation in the fellowship. The stipend will also be available for fellows during the duration of their project scholarship cycle in year 2 or 3 of the program under the same conditions.

Online Access Stipend:
The Online Access Stipend is a one-time financial support to ensure fellows can participate in the online program. It covers essential digital access needs and is available to those eligible for the Cost of Living Stipend or who require additional support for online participation. It is paid out at the beginning of the first year of the program.For both stipends, fellows are required to provide documentation of their financial situation and submit receipts for their expenses.

The Fellowship is a hybrid experience, with most content and training over the initial 12-month learning period delivered in live online sessions and through access to on-demand content. During this period, Fellows also attend quarterly local meet-ups (in person whenever possible) and a regional in-person summit. Based on their engagement and achievements over the Fellowship period, Fellows may also be invited to participate in an in-person global summit.

To be eligible for the beVisioneers Fellowship, applicants must:

• Be between the ages of 16 and 28 at the time of applying
• Reside in Chile, Costa Rica, Europe, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Panama, Rwanda, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, USA, or Zimbabwe. Applicants must currently live in one of these countries and plan to stay in one of them for the entire 3-year Fellowship.
• Have a good command of the english language
• Show a strong dedication to positive environmental change
• Demonstrate entrepreneurial spirit, including persistence, resilience, and determination
• Have an environmental challenge they want to tackle in one or more of the target countries
• Not work for, or have a parent or guardian who works for Mercedes-Benz

Fellows retain the exclusive rights to all intellectual property brought to and/or developed as part of the beVisioneers program.

Are you ready?! Applications for the 2024–2025 beVisioneers Cohort will open on October 14th 2024. The process is designed to help us get to know you and your motivations for applying.

Application Process:

Applying for a beVisioneers Fellowship is easy. You can save your work in progress and come back to it at any time.

Step 1: Register for our Application Platform

• Sign up for our application platform.
• After registering, you will receive an email from Dream ID with login instructions.
• Use your email address to sign in and start your application.

Step 2: Complete the Written and Video Application

• Fill out the written application and submit a short video. 
• This should take around 30 minutes.
• If you need financial support, you can apply for it during this step.

Step 3: Await Shortlisting Results

• Once you’ve submitted your application, wait to hear from us.
• We will notify you by the first week of March 2025 if you’ve been shortlisted.
• Shortlisted candidates will be invited to complete a 15-minute online activity.

You can check out the video guide here

The key upcoming deadlines and time periods for beVisioneers are:

Application Period: October 14, 2024 – January 12, 2025

Selection Period: March – May, 2025

Launch of the Fellowship’s 12-Month Intensive Program (Year One): June, 2025

Yes! Your expenses will be covered.

If you’re economically disadvantaged, you can apply for financial support to cover needs like a laptop or income replacement.

All fellows, regardless of financial status and if they are receiving this financial support or not, have their travel, expenses, and accommodation paid for for key program events.

beVisioneers is a part time fellowship with only a 24 hour per month commitment in the first year, with less commitment time in years 2 and 3. So it’s perfect if you are already studying, have a job or a family to look after.

No! You do not need any skills, knowledge or qualifications.

You just need to be passionate about the environment and have an idea to solve an environmental problem!

We encourage everyone no matter what their background is, to apply. Just ensure you meet our demographic eligibility criteria.